OF SELBORNE 261 



record. " Ipse rex tenet Selesburne. Eddid regina tenuit, 

 et nunquam geldavit. De isto manerio dono dedit 

 rex Radfredo presbytero dimidiam hidam cum ecclesia. 

 Tempore regis Edwardi et post, valuit duodecim solidos 

 et sex denarios ; modo octo solidos et quatuor denarios." 

 Here we see that Selborne was a royal manor ; and that 

 Editha, the queen of Edward the Confessor, had been 

 lady of that manor ; and was succeeded in it by the 

 Conqueror ; and that it had a church. Besides these, 

 many circumstances concur to prove it to have been a 

 Saxon village ; such as the name of the place itself 1 the 

 names of many fields, and some families, 2 with a variety of 

 words in husbandry and common life, still subsisting 

 among the country people. 



1 Selesburne, Seleburne, Selburn, Selbourn, Selborne, and Selborn, as 

 it has been variously spelt at different periods, is of Saxon derivation ; 

 for Sel signifies great, and burn torrens, a brook or rivulet : so that the 

 name seems to be derived from the great perennial stream that breaks 

 out at the upper end of the village. Sel also signifies bonus, item, 



foecundus, fertilis. " Sel-^sepp-zun : foecunda graminis clausura ; fertile 

 paseuum : a meadow in the parish of Godelming is still called Sal-gars- 

 ton." Lye's Saxon Dictionary, in the Supplement, by Mr. Manning. 



2 Thus the name of Aldred signifies all-reverend, and that of Kemp 

 means a soldier. Thus we have a church-litton, or enclosure for dead 

 bodies, and not a church-yard : there is also a Culver-croft near the 

 Grange-farm, being the enclosure where the priory pigeon-house stood, 

 from culver, a pigeon. Again there are three steep pastures in this parish 

 called the Lithe, from Hlithe, clivus. The wicker-work that binds and 

 fastens down a hedge on the top is called ether, from ether an hedge. 

 When the good women call their hogs they cry sic, tic* not knowing 

 that sic is Saxon, or rather Celtic, for a hog. Coppice or brush wood our 

 countrymen call rise, from hris, frondes ; and talk of a load of rise. 

 Within the author's memory the Saxon plurals, housen and peason, 

 were in common use. But it would be endless to instance in every 

 circumstance : he that wishes for more specimens must frequent a 

 farmer's kitchen. I have therefore selected some words to show how 

 familiar the Saxon dialect was to this district, since in more than seven 

 hundred years it is far from being obliterated. 



* 2tKa, porcus, apud Lacones ; un Porceau chez les Lacdemoniens : 

 ce mot a sans doute est6 pris des Celtes, qui disoent sic, pour marquer 

 un porceau. Encore aujour'huy quand les Bretons chassent ces animaux, 

 ils ne disent point autrement, que sic, sic. Antlquite de la Nation, et de la 

 Langue des Celtes, par Pezron. 



